Linux Gaming Begins Gathering Steam

"Steam remains one of the best assets in the gaming space today that doesn't get much attention due to the console cycles and the rise of social gaming," said P.J. McNealy, consultant at Digital World Research. "However, it's right in the thick of the emerging business models for gaming, and being available on Linux certainly can't hurt."

By Peter Suciu
07/17/12 2:31 PM PT

Linux users have been mostly left out when trying to get in on the gaming action, but soon they'll be able to be "Left 4 Dead 2" instead. On Tuesday,
Valve announced that it would bring its digital distribution service Steam to the Linux platform.

The company reportedly formed a new team last year to work on a full-featured version of the Steam client for Ubuntu 12.04, and the result is "Left 4 Dead 2," a first-person action game developed by Valve and set in world overrun by zombies.

The so-called "Steam'd Penguins" project will see more titles ported to Linux, and this will allow developers to target gamers via the online service beyond just Windows and Mac. To date, Linux users have had to rely on Windows emulators such as Wine and often have been annoyed with bugs and compatibility problems along the way.

"Valve wants Steam to be on all platforms, and it is possible that Linux could see greater exploitation as a gaming platform," Billy Pidgeon, a game industry analyst with
M2 Research, told LinuxInsider.

Valve did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

Steam'd Up With Open Source

Steam's move to Linux will be done through Ubuntu, at least initially. The goal of the development team is to create a full-featured Steam client, and good progress has been made so far. However, no date has been set when gamers might actually get Steam'd up on Ubuntu and blast away the walking undead.

In addition to opening up the online service to open source gamers, this could help Steam get a bit more attention as well.

"Steam remains one of the best assets in the gaming space today that doesn't get much attention due to the console cycles and the rise of social gaming," P.J. McNealy, consultant at Digital World Research, told LinuxInsider. "However, it's right in the thick of the emerging business models for gaming, and being available on Linux certainly can't hurt."

Battling Piracy

While gamers will get to battle those zombies in the first game for Steam on Ubuntu, the online service continues to do its job battling the digital pirates plaguing game publishers and developers.

The Steam service requires gamers to log in to the service to play a game, and this authenticates that the copy is tied to the specific user. This in turn makes it very difficult for pirates to copy and distribute the code.

"Steam has largely stopped piracy of games that are available on the service," said Pidgeon. "This is especially true in the Asian markets, where piracy has been an ongoing concern."

It was piracy concerns that led many game developers to move away from PC games to the video game consoles, but some game companies see opportunities in the PC market again, thanks to services such as Steam. Being on Linux could help attract that small, but very passionate market of gamers.

"It doesn't cost too much to support it, so why not?" asked Pidgeon. "And as the consoles get long in the tooth, there could be more game development on the PC, which Steam could support."

Linux Gaming Beyond Steam

Steam of course is not the only online service operating. While it is the leading service, some game publishers, including Activision and Electronic Arts, have created their own services that allow users to purchase, download and update games.

This has also helped reduce piracy of some hot-selling titles such as those in the "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield 3" franchises.

But could Steam get developers powered up to look more closely at open source? Probably not.

"It is hard to say, but I don't think there will be a huge effort to open source on the PC," said Pidgeon. "It is going to take a lot more than Steam to get publishers on board with Linux."